What's on in the Midlands

Published: 9 October 2021
Reporter: Steve Orme

Norman Pace (Wilbur) and Brenda Edwards (Motormouth Maybelle) in Hairspray at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham Credit: Mark Senior
Gecko’s The Wedding at Nottingham Playhouse Credit: Richard Haughton
Wesley Griffith as Mellors in Not Lady Chatterley’s Lover at the Albany Theatre, Coventry Credit: Thomas Christian

Brenda Edwards plays Motormouth Maybelle and Nottinghamshire-born Norman Pace is Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray which tours to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Monday until Saturday.

Matthew Bourne’s new world première for New Adventures, The Midnight Bell, dances into Leicester’s Curve from Monday until Saturday while Jodie Prenger plays Emma in the tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s musical Tell me on a Sunday from Tuesday until Saturday.

The Sh!ts are back, finding murder and mystery in the fight to be European in Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum With Expats at Nottingham Playhouse on Wednesday and Thursday while Gecko’s seventh touring production The Wedding, which combines “movement, imagery and provocative narratives”, walks down the aisle from Wednesday until Saturday.

Rhum and Clay's The War of the Worlds reimagines Orson Welles's famed 1938 radio adaption of H G Wells's alien invasion saga at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry from Wednesday until Saturday.

Lawrence Russell’s parody of the D H Lawrence epic Not Lady Chatterley’s Lover takes to the stage at the Albany Theatre, Coventry on Friday.

Journeys Festival International, which curates, presents and commissions a varied programme of work created by artists exploring the refugee experience and global cultures, runs at various venues in Leicester from Friday until Sunday 24 October.

As part of its Coventry UK City of Culture programme, the Belgrade Theatre teams up with Cardboard Citizens to co-produce a new musical, The Ruff Tuff Cream Puff Estate Agency, based on an original work by Heathcote Williams, which continues until Saturday, while David Suchet visits the theatre with Poirot and More, A Retrospective on Sunday.

A tribute to Derby County and the Rams’ 1946 FA Cup win, Extra Time, “created by the people of Derby for the people of Derby”, continues at Derby Theatre until Sunday,

What’s New Pussycat?, Joe DiPietro’s musical which brings together the songs of Tom Jones with Henry Fielding’s comic novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, continues at Birmingham REP until Sunday 14 November.

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